Congratulations Hermine! We are in awe of your collage stamping skills! Hermine will win a Guest Designer slot, a Winners Profile and of course her gorgeous card will be published in Craft Stamper Magazine.

As always, we have the remaining two slots in our Design Top Three to reveal, they are in no particular order)

Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Welcome to the first "meet the team" feature for 2015! I hope you enjoyed the festive season and have the new year off to a good start. Our designer in the spotlight today is Riikka...

Hi there Craft Stampers! My
name is Riikka Kovasin and I'm from Helsinki, Finland. I'm married to the love
of my life and we have two daughters together, aged 5 and 4. I joined the CS
team little over a year ago, in November 2013 and have been creating for the
magazine ever since. I was originally a part of the Scrap365 design team and
then got asked to contribute to CS as well.

Like most crafty people, I
assume, I've been doing different kinds of things my whole life. Paper crafts,
sewing, knitting, painting... It took me a while to really find my favorite
supplies but after my first daughter was born I got into scrapbooking and fell
in love with all sorts of paper crafts. I had used stamps before in card making
and still do occasionally, but my favorite way to use stamps is to create a
background using them and layer them on top of each other. My "go to"
ink is Archival Ink in either Jet Black or in my new favorite, Watering Can.

I chose this project for many
reasons. It has many of my favorite supplies in it, a stamp that I absolutely
adore but I guess the main reason was the topic as it's a turning point in my
life. Long story short, it's about a moment when I learned I was a crafter, a
maker and followed my passion in my studies.

Q: Do you have a signature style or favourite
technique?

A: I'm a mixed
media influenced crafter so I absolutely love to get messy! I adore mists,
gessos and inks and layer them on the same piece. I tend to use analogous or
even monochromatic color scheme in my projects and simply adore people who can
join opposite colors to the same craft.

I guess my favorite technique
would include a pencil. It's not as much a technique than a little thing I
usually do in my projects - add loosely drawn pencil circle around the focal
point.

This piece shows my love to
layer. In this card there's acrylic paints, mists, PanPastels and inks. I love
when I can get messy and just try out different mediums. On top I layered some
epoxy butterflies, painted over them with gesso and then wiped the shapes clean
again. This was so fun to make!

Q: Where do you look for
inspiration before you start on a project?

A: Everywhere! Or maybe rather
"nowhere" as I usually do not tend to look for any inspiration but
let it find me. And it usually does find me and I end up in a situation
with "more ideas than time".

But anything can inspire. It
can be a color combination, a texture I've seen, a new supply that just needs
to be tested or when I have a certain assignment to fulfill. You can find
inspiration in the works of others or from your own creations!

Inspiration is actually a
thing that really intrigues me and I've been writing a series of blog posts
about the different sources I've used and am using (you can see the posts here). I also have an
ongoing challenge together with Marsha Valk called "Inspired By" that
also may shine some light on the process and how I draw inspiration before
starting a piece (those challenges are here).

I chose these cards as my
third favorite as they show my love for the different mediums but also as they
represent my favorite color palette. Like the first project they also have some
of my favorite mediums and brands in
them and as a little treat, these come up with a tutorial, too! You can see it
here.

Thank you so much for letting me to share a few words and some of my
favorite projects here at Craft Stamper blog! If you wish to visit me, my blog
is called Paperiliitin (Finnish word meaning paper clip) and I also have
several social media accounts. It would be fun to see you around! Wishing you
all a pleasant day!

Many thanks to Riikka for sharing a little of her stamping story and some beautiful projects and thanks to you for joining us today, we hope you're enjoying finding out a bit more about some of the designers!

Martina won the challenge with this stunning project, showing off the theme of 'White Stamping' beautifully:

We asked Martina a few questions all about stamping (well, we are Craft Stamper after all!)

Q: How long have you
been a stamper, and how did you get started?

A: I
have been a stamper for over 19 years. All started with a little craft shop
near my home village. There´s where I first saw rubber stamps. Instantly I was
hooked.

Q: What are your
favourite kinds of stamps, and do you have a favourite stamp company?

A: I
love wood mounted rubber stamps but had to switch to polymer or cling mount
stamps since these don´t require not so much storing space.

I have
a huge collection of stamps from many manufacturers but Stampers Anonymous,
Hero Arts and Waltzing Mouse Stamps are represented the most.

Q: Describe your style,
are you a messy kind of stamper or a more ‘clean and simple’ kind of person?

A: CAS is nothing I can do. It always looks so empty
;-) I love detail, layers and various textures - nothing better than trying out
some "new" techniques.

Q:What kind of projects do you like creating the most?

A: Creating Albums out of old package carton or
something is my all time favourite! I like to build something out of nothing.

Q: Apart from stamps,
what is the one product you wouldn’t be without when you craft?

A: In fact I would need a piece of paper ;-)
Distress Ink walnut stain

I just love reading about another crafter and getting to know them a little, don't you?!

We also asked Martina to show us one of her favourite stamped creations, and share why she likes it so much. This is the gorgeous project she has chosen:

"I created this ATC for a swap and like it a lot
how it turned out. The light seems to come from behind the saying ('strength
lies in calmness') and the stamping blurred a bit into the background (that´s
what I was looking for). I also love the layers of colour, stamping and wording
that created depth." -Martina

Congratulations on being our December Design Winner Martina, and it was lovely to learn a little more about you!

Do YOU fancy having a winners profile all about you on the CS blog?

The profile is part of the prize package for each Design Winner of our challenges. All you need to do is enter a creation into the challenge, then if you are voted Design Winner everyone will be reading all about you before you know it!

Our current challenge 'Take A Stamp' is still open for a few more days! All the details can be found HERE.

Don't forget about our Blog Hop, that is also open for comments for a little while longer! Details on the blog hop can be found HERE.

Friday, 16 January 2015

I'm so excited to announce the start of the very first Take It, Make It Blog Hop!

As part of the big 2015 relaunch of the new look challenge, we thought we'd have a bit more fun with a blog hop!

(BTW, have you SEEN the prize for the main challenge this month? It's HUGE!...... have a look here!)

AND.... as if the main prize wasn't enough, we've only gone and rustled up some more for the blog hop!

As you hop, why not leave a comment on the blogs you land on? If you leave a comment, your name will be entered into the draw for this....

How's that for a super fabulous mixed media substrate pack?!(full details of the pack can be found over on the sidebar!)

The BEST thing is.....we have 12 of these packs to give away, one up for grabs on each and every blog along the hop!

You can also bag yourself some amazing original artwork too, each blogger has generously given the project they are showcasing on the hop as part of the prize!

When the main challenge ends, we will also be closing the comments on each blog post along the hop. We will then draw 12 names at random.... one from each set of comments on each of the 12 blogs. If your name is chosen from the comments on Elizabeth's blog (for example), you will win a substrate pack AND Elizabeth's artwork, the winner chosen from Shirleys blog will win a substrate pack AND Shirley's artwork and so on and so forth!